The Sistema Queixa Electronica is a service provided by the Ministério da Administração Interna to facilitate the presentation to the GNR, PSP and the SEF of complaints and reports electronically for certain types of crime; the list is defined in Ordinance no. No 1593/2007 of 17 December . The crimes are shown below. Individuals may lodge a complaint, duly identified, domestic or foreign residents in Portugal or present in the country. It covers the whole of Portugal both towns and in rural areas.

The system is not intended to respond to emergency situations or those where the immediate response forces or security services is needed, particularly when the crime is still being committed. In this case you should immediately contact the National Emergency Number – 112. For crimes not covered by the Electronic Complaint System, citizens should continue to address or contact the nearest police authority. To facilitate the filing of the complaint provided by you, brief information of the statutory provision (penal code) is provided to which the crime relates.

The filing of these crime complaints online has benefits in vastly reducing the amount of time in having to make the crime complaint at a police station and helps relieve the pressure on police staff in processing complaints at the police station whilst the complainant is kept waiting. Please note that within 48 hours of making the on-line complaint you still need to visit the police station for the purpose of producing and confirming your identity, but this is a far quicker and simpler process.

The following steps in completing the fields are properly marked. For some of the crimes listed, such as theft or Simple Physical Integrity (minor assault), the prosecution relies on a complaint personally by the victim or his legal representative to enable the Prosecutor to conduct the prosecution. In public crimes (such as domestic violence or the facilitation of illegal immigration) any citizen can file a complaint. In both cases, referral to the competent authority takes place only after validation and confirmation of the identity of the person using the system, and subject treatment in the same way that a complaint directly to a force or security service.

These being the conditions of using this system, citizens can still use all traditional forms of reporting and complaint of crimes provided by law.

List of crimes that can be reported on-line are on the right hand side of this page. Simply click on the complaint crime link which takes you through to the definition of the crime and description. If it applies to your situation, from there you can access a further link to the appropriate on line report form.